1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to agricultural/aquacultural systems and methods. More specifically, the present invention generally relates to sustainable agricultural/aquacultural systems and methods. Even more specifically, the present invention generally relates to smart sustainable agricultural/aquacultural systems and methods for growing products, such as flooded grain crops and aqueous organisms.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With respect to agriculture, this endeavor is generally defined as the farming of food, such as plant, animal, e.g., herd animals and poultry, and life forms in between plant and animal, such as fungi, e.g., mushrooms. Agriculture has been instrumental in the development of human civilization and includes growing crops as well as animal husbandry for the main purpose of creating food surpluses for the benefit of human society. Agriculture includes many farming techniques, such as tilling soil, providing irrigation, and herding livestock. A specific technique includes hydroponics, such as in growing tomatoes, for example.
Since ancient times, self-subsistence farming has been used and is still popular in undeveloped and developing countries. In developed countries, agriculture includes a wide range of farming techniques, such as sustainable agriculture, e.g., permaculture and organic agriculture, and intensive farming, e.g., industrial organic agriculture and commercial agriculture. Modern agriculture also involves genetic alteration, pesticides, and fertilizers.
One form of agriculture involves the use of flooding fields, ponds, or bogs for crops, such as rice, organic rice, wild rice, cranberries, and the like. The related art method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, planting young seedlings. This related art method requires extensive manual water management, e.g., planning and servicing, of the water as well as extensive construction, e.g., damming and channeling, for the fields. Although flooding is not mandatory in growing rice or organic rice, all other methods of irrigation require extensive effort in weeding, controlling pests, and fertilizing.
Another example of a crop, being grown using flooded agriculture, is wild rice, a dark grain which grows in shallow water, such as small lakes and slow-flowing streams, such as found in Canada, northern United States, and parts of Asia. Typically, the flowering head of the wild rice plant is disposed above water level. Before 1965, most wild rice in the United States was produced in natural stands, such as lakes, rivers, and streams. In Canada, most wild rice is still produced in lakes and streams that are leased from the government. Growing wild rice as a field crop was suggested in the 1850s, but significant efforts did not begin until about 1950 when James and Gerald Godward began to grow wild rice in a one-acre diked and flooded field (reservoir) near Merrifield, Minn.
Yet another example of a crop, being grown using flooded agriculture, is the cranberry, a fruit that is grown in wet, marshy areas, such as bogs. Cranberries grow best in climates having a cool growing season without extreme cold. Cranberry farms are mostly found in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. In the United States, they are grown in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Washington. The marshy cranberry bogs have peat formed at the bottom when dead plants fall and disintegrate. The cranberry “beds” comprise sand and peat. Banks are typically formed around these cranberry beds. Ditches are typically formed around the cranberry beds, whereby a farmer manually feeds water from a holding area having a higher elevation.
In addition to conventional crops, a specialized category of agriculture, called aquaculture or aquafarming, is generally defined as the farming of freshwater and saltwater organisms, such as finfish, mollusks, crustaceans, and aquatic plants, such as seaweed. Aquaculture involves cultivating aquatic organisms, under somewhat controlled conditions, in contrast to commercial fishing, being defined as the harvesting of wild fish.
For example, a form of aquaculture is mariculture, being defined as the practice of aquaculture in a marine environment. Other forms of aquaculture include algaculture, being defined as the practice of growing kelp/seaweed and other algae, fish farming, shrimp farming, oyster farming, the culturing of pearls, and the growing of ornamental fish. Some specific techniques include aquaponics, which integrates fish farming and plant farming.
Although primitive techniques, such as flooded rice reservoirs and oyster beds, have been largely replaced with commercialized and industrialized farming operations, these modern techniques remain inefficient, unsustainable, and largely uncontrolled.